Robyn on style: 'The idea of wearing something extravagant was never weird to me'

​The same girl that topped the pop charts in the late '90s with bubble-gum hits alongside the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, and then abruptly disappeared in the U.S. for over a decade, is back, but this time with a twist. Robyn's music is fabulously thriving, and she's completely reinvented herself as an electro-pop bombshell. She is stylish, and can make just about anyone dance. With three wildly successful EPs in 2010's Body Talk trilogy, Robyn has reclaimed her place in the Pop Kingdom.

Currently on her second tour in less than six months, and having spent countless hours in the recording studio in order to release her Body Talk EPs in one season, it's safe to assume that Robyn hasn't had much of a break lately. However, she responded with a great deal of enthusiasm when asked about her upcoming schedule. "My career is that I'm recording music and I'm on tour this whole year," she says. "I'm getting to perform in front of an audience that is really passionate, and I'm just so into what I'm doing. The plan is just to keep doing that, I have no ambition to do anything else at the moment, I'm really just enjoying myself!"

Robyn is nominated for a 2011 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording with the song "Dancing on My Own" from Body Talk Pt. 1. With at times controversial content and the undeniable essence of 'It hurts so bad, but feels so good' dance music, Robyn sings of empowerment with "Indestructible" and even a little bit sci-fi on "Fembot." Her songs are sympathetic but not repressive, energetic and still intimate. "The stage is somewhere where I feel really comfortable, and I think there are a lot of things you can do on the stage in the pop world that hasn't really been explored much yet," she says.

Some have compared Robyn to the European version of Lady Gaga. "I grew up around theater and my parents were always on stage and in costumes," she says, referring to her unique European-influenced fashion. "So the idea of wearing something extravagant was never weird to me." Robyn is the club DJ's new best friend, and it's obvious the cheeky 17-year-old girl from the '90s has morphed, but into something just as honest and perhaps a little bit more exotic. In a day and age where genre lines are often blurred (musicians turn into actors, and actors turn into singers), the creative boundaries are habitually pressed.

Refreshingly, Robyn comes across as authentic.

"I hope I'm going to do other things later in my life, I think it's always important to evolve and to explore your craft, and I hope to keep doing that for as long as I'm alive," she reflects. "But where that's going to take me, I don't know. I'm quite interested in seeing what stage [theater] is; what it could be for me."

ROBYN performs a sold-out show with Diamond Rings and Natalia Kills on SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13, at FIRST AVENUE.